stage collaborations

Une oreille pour entendre même mal ces bribes d’un antique cafouillis (An ear to hear even badly these scraps of an antique rigmarole)

This performance is a sonic transposition of the multiple layers of text of Heiner Müller’s manuscript of Die Hamletmaschine, composed of documents in relation to Die Hamletmaschine, the complex HiB and Müller’s ‘bulgarian notebook’.

The script is full of ideas, sketches, corrections, variations, crossed-out words, annotations, appointments, phone numbers and TV programs which we considered as a musical score bringing into play both the set of typographical signs and the actual text.

In this imaginary musical score, we wanted to explore the writing process of the work, including its digressions, stammerings and fleeting thoughts. In summary, we wanted it to be heard, without a hierarchy of importance.

Concept: Yves Arcaix in collaboration with Christina Clar
Performers: Yves Arcaix, Christina Clar, David Neaud, Silvia Platzer

Q-O2 werkplaats, Brussels, 2009

Les Inepties volantes (Flying nonsense)

This performance is a score for two voices written and performed by actor and stage director Dieudonné Niangouna, together with accordionist Pascal Contet.

Once upon a time there was a civil war, among so many others, as terrifying and destructive as all the others. It was in 1997 in Congo-Brazzaville. It lasted a few years, almost three. Dieudonné Niangouna experienced it in his flesh and spirit. Today, he can finally deliver a text on this subject, a text which he has long held hidden, convinced that all the survivors could only be cowards as they did not die as heroes.

A journey to hell that Dieudonné Niangouna shares with Pascal Contet, an outstanding figure in contemporary music, capable of turning his accordion into a full-fledged character who accompanies the screams and the murmurs, and becomes a partner in suffering. It is a genuine dialogue that emerges between the two interpreters and their instruments: the voice of one, the music of the other. We are in the theatre and not in a documentary narrative, thus the required distance is established to present what is at the heart of a reconstruction work through the survival of memory.

text, direction and interpretation: Dieudonné Niangouna
music and interpretation: Pascal Contet
lighting: Xavier Lazarini et Brunel Makoumbou
sound design: Christina Clar

production: Avignon Festival
delegated production: Bonlieu Scène nationale Annecy; coproduction: Festival d’Avignon, l’Allan Scène nationale de Montbéliard, Châteauvallon Centre national de Création et de Diffusion culturelles, Théâtre 71 Scène nationale de Malakoff, Théâtre d’Arras

Avignon Festival, 2009

Les Inepties volantes (excerpt)
Review Africultures

Conférence concertante (Concert conference)

I created the stage and sound design for this open theatre piece written and directed by artist and musician Yves Chaudouët.

It was a pleasure to experiment with language and its sound, its rhythm, using musical scores and changing the locations of the rehearsals: sometimes we went through the texts outside, while walking, or in the forest.

Over the course of time we were performing this piece, we also had the opportunity to do several other performances and readings of works by John Cage, Heiner Müller, Chuck Jones, Tex Avery and others throughout the city of Dijon: in a record shop, in a shop window of the Galleries Lafayette, in a cinema and some other unconventional locations.

direction and table design: Yves Chaudouët
stage and sound design: Christina Clar
actors: Yves Arcaix, Antoine Romana, Mehdi Lecourt, Pierre-François Doireau
assistants: Axelle Guéret, Ludivine Régnier

Centre Dramatique National Théâtre Dijon Bourgogne, 2008
direction: François Chattot

Théâtre Dijon Bourgogne

Le Vent des Anches (The Wind of the Reeds)

This performance is a musical and improvised journey to the junction of the Silk Road and the Middle East. The whole journey is marked by many stops, both sonic and visual. Electronics and video bathe the room in a magical atmosphere. The reed, at the origin of many instruments, holds the place of honor here, represented by the clarinet, the accordion and the sheng.

Concept: Pascal Contet
With: Carol Robinson (clarinets), 
Wu Wei (sheng, erhu, bawu), Tom Mays (electronic & visual treatment), Pascal Contet (accordion)
lightning: Xavier Lazarini
sound design: Christina Clar

MALAKOF Théâtre 71 – Scène Nationale, Auditorium St Germain, Metz Arsenal, L’Allan- Scène Nationale Montbéliard, Scène Nationale de St. Quentin-en-Yvelines, Macon Scène nationale, Centro Cultural Universitario Mexico City, 2007-10

Bonjour M. Gauguin (Hello Mr. Gauguin)

I created the stage design, the videos and did the live VJing for this contemporary opera production staged at the beautiful Teatro Fondamenta Nuove in Venice.

In order to make space for the perception of colours of Gauguin’s world, I choose a stage set with very few material stage props, using mainly transparent screens onto which I projected animations and documentary photographs. I then manipulated objects in front of the projector lens to distort the image.

Music, libretto and concept: Fabrizio Carlone
Singers: Philippe Georges, Maki Mori, Jean-François Chiama, Maria Soulis, Jean-Philippe Biojout
Conductor: Sandro Gorli
Orchestra Divertimento Ensemble
director: Anna Cianca
stage design, videos and VJing: Christina Clar
programming: Fabrice Moinet
light design: Benoît Lalloz
costumes: Antonio Petrocelli

Venice, 2005